Jane Long Boarding House

Born in Maryland in 1798, Jane H. Wilkinson moved to Mississippi (1811) and became the ward of her famous relative, Gen. James Wilkinson, field commander of the United States Army. Jane married Dr. James Long in 1815 and later followed him on a filibustering expedition to free Texas from Spain. In 1821 Long led his forces into battle, leaving Jane alone with their daughter Ann and slave girl Kian at Point Bolivar, near Galveston. On Dec. 21, 1821, with snow falling, their food supply gone, and Kian ill, Jane gave birth to a daughter, then rose and got food and firewood for her family. Her heroism earned her the name "Mother of Texas." Later she learned of her husband's death in Mexico. During the period Texas was a colony and a republic, Jane Long operated two well-known boarding houses. She started the first in Brazoria in 1832; her guests included William B. Travis, Sam Houston, and Mirabeau B. Lamar. In 1837 Jane moved to Richmond and on this site opened another boarding house which became a center for social and political activities as well as lodging for prominent Texans and European visitors. Jane ran this hotel until her plantation near town became prosperous in the 1840s. She died in 1880 and is buried in richmond's Morton Cemetery.

Jane Long Boarding House is a historical marker in Richmond, Fort Bend County, dedicated in 1975. It is one of 90 historical markers documented in Fort Bend County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 237 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 29.5833, -95.7619 near Richmond. The nearest cataloged historic site is Courthouse Square, Early (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Morton Lodge No. 72, A. F. & A. M., St. John's United Methodist Church, and McFarlane House, The.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5157009006. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.